Electronic entities having a presence in an electronic environment, such as may be provided via a Web site or other such source of content, typically need to have an ability to test or conduct experiments on the content (e.g., Web site) that do not interfere with the user experience. For example, a Web site may require maintenance, repair, or modification that would involve testing of new software applications associated with the site, repairing existing software, and the like. There are several conventional methods of conducting experiments related to a Web site's maintenance or modification. One method would be to modify the site itself, which can adversely affect the user experience. Another method would be to ask the user to install a script or application on the user's browser that would modify the site. For example, a user may be asked to install a Greasemonkey® script on his browser which causes the changes made to the Web page to be executed every time the page is opened, thus making the changes effectively permanent for the user running the script, which can be fairly intrusive for the user and for an electronic entity operating the site.
A third method would be to simply rebuild the Web site in a test environment, effectively duplicating the original Web site. This method may prove costly and only marginally effective considering that an alternate site, however scrupulously duplicated, still may not reflect all events happening on a “live” site due, for example, to “real-time” user traffic, thus making software testing much less accurate. Furthermore, the electronic entity operating the Web site may not receive a customer feedback relating to a proposed site modification or upgrade prior to making a serious investment in time and resources for providing the proposed modification.